08/09/2024
NEWS STORY
Just 8 points shy of Red Bull, Andrea Stella insists McLaren has no need to rush on upgrades.
The game-changing upgrade came at Miami, with victory signalling the Woking outfit's intent. Though there was another upgrade at Zandvoort, unlike some McLaren doesn't feel the need to bring further updates on a race by race basis.
"We haven't brought a significant upgrade since Miami," says team boss Andrea Stella. "The next relevant upgrade, not as big as Miami, was in Zandvoort, and it didn't involve the floor , it was just a detail. It was some other areas of the car."
Ferrari has been as aggressive as ever, the most significant upgrade being to the floor of the SF-24, and while Mercedes have been mostly track specific, and of questionable benefit, Red Bull has seemingly gone the working way and is actually understood to be reverting to an earlier package.
"There's a reason why we haven't brought some upgrades," Stella admits, "because we see that had we pressed the go button we might have had some doubts when these parts were tested full-scale on the real car. So we are taking our time to convince ourselves that the development is mature to be taken trackside."
It's believed that, like Ferrari, McLaren has a new floor, but having seen the issues its rivals has faced is loathe to introduce it just yet. Indeed, it prefers to sit back and capitalise on its rivals errors.
However, the Italian plays down claims that the McLaren is the best car out there and that it is set to dominate the remainder of the season, despite the front-row lock-out in Monza.
I think actually the grid order is very much to do with the drivers being able to nail the grip available, rather than the car being a dominant car," says Stella.
"If we look at the real lap times, rather than just simply looking at positions P1/P2, then we see that every driver of the fastest four teams was in condition to actually lock the first position on the grid."